"The objectives of the survey were to obtain a profile of the religious beliefs, attitudes, and practices of members of the participating [Mennonite] denominations...to identify trends in these areas that would provide clues regarding the impact of modernization on Mennonite life and thought....There was also interest in determining whether modernization involved increases in secularism, individualism, and materialism." (Kauffman and Driedger, 1991).

Data File

Cases: 3,083
Variables: 451
Weight Variable: WTFACTOR

The five Mennonite denominations were sampled in differing proportions. Weighting was used to correct for these differing proportions. For details and results, see p. 276 in Kauffman and Driedger's The Mennonite Mosaic.

Data Collection

Date Collected: March to July 1989

Funded By

The project was under the supervision of an Administrative Committee composed of a representative from each of the five participating denominations. A budget of $70,000 was raised from the participating denominations, various church boards and several foundations.

Collection Procedures

A 28-page questionnaire was completed by more than 3,000 members of five Mennonite denominations in the United States and Canada. The questionnaires were administered in a group setting in each of the sample congregations.

Sampling Procedures

All conference-affiliated congregations in the United States and Canada were randomly sampled, with probability of selection proportionate to congregation size (number of members), yielding 181 congregations, of which 153 (85 percent) agreed to participate in the survey. A random selection of members was chosen from each participating congregations to complete the questionnaire.

Variables MENNSCHL (321) through COLLDISC (336) are questions about schools operated by several Mennonite and Brethren in Christ denominations. The terms "church schools," "church colleges," "church high schools," etc. are used to refer only to schools operated by these denominations.

Not included in this data file are scales utilized in the original study. A list of these scales, and the items used to construct them, has been included at the end of this document. In all cases, high scores on the scales represent the high position on the scale concept (e.g., high scores on Anti-Communism represents opposition to communism, high scores on Political Action represent favorableness toward political activity, etc.) When constructing the scales, the response codes for some questionnaire items were reversed so that the high score conformed to the high position on the scale concept.